"Same and Different" is a math routine that I've been exploring recently. This is a routine that gives students a structure to compare and contrast two objects or ideas. I was introduced to this routine on twitter back in August 2017 when Brian Bushart launched the website https://samedifferentimages.wordpress.com/. Fueled by support from the #MTBoS, the site quickly gained momentum.

In mid-December, I saw a tweet from Kristie Donavan. In it, she wrote "#samediffmath is one of my favorite structures for connecting new ideas with prior understanding!" She also attached a few examples that she has used. I really liked the idea of using this routine to help students construct mathematical connections. In the Nova Scotia mathematics curriculum, "Connections" is one of the seven Mathematical Processes that are intended to be infused throughout each course. Making connections between mathematical ideas helps students see mathematics as a consistent and integrated whole and not isolated units of study. Below are two images that I created to help students make connections between related representations and ideas.

Below are two more #samediffmath images that I created to connect different representations. The first was inspired by a recent tweet from Kent Haines. He was exploring a variety of ways to model a linear equation. There were lots of replies and suggestions that I hadn't considered such as Howie Hua's reply suggesting using a "splat" model.